Forum:Thoughts about a Manual of Style
Make suggestions for a Fanon Manual of Style We need an MoS to ensure entries are somewhat homogenized. Love Robin (talk) 06:53, March 10, 2013 (UTC) :Okay here are my suggestions. :* Make the MoS specific and personal instead of general. Instead of "The following are for the purposes of *this wiki*." try "The following are for the purposes of the *Kim Possible Fanon Wiki*." :* I would strongly recommend that you do not differentiate between story and installment. The reason being that it is very likely that a story can become a series with installments. By making artificial and rigid differentiation between them early then you only make work for yourself if and when a story becomes a series. :* All of the CharacterName subpages (CharacterName/AuthorName, CharacterName/FullName, and CharacterName/StoryTitle) could be condensed into CharacterName/SeriesTitle. Each series is going to have a unique representation of the character. The others simply add redundancy and complexity that isn't necessary or productive. :* I would strongly suggest against the canon full name format of 'Character/FullName' Ex., Shego/Sheena Gold, Tara/Tara Queen, Marcella/Marcella Marceau. This will lead to confusion when dealing with characterizations from widely diverse series who share a common name. For instance, how many series use the name Wade Load? You would quickly have to have a disambiguation page for Wade and Wade Load. The same can be said for common fanon names like Tara King, Monique Jenkins, Ronald Dean Stoppable, Dean Stoppable, etc. And again, these incarnations will be covered by Character/Series. :* Character/AuthorName pages seem doomed to failure. While I realize that as an author you can comment on such things, it is really only an author that can do so. And if it not an author then you are only opening yourself up to pointless arguments and supposition. They are also redundant, as any information from this page could just as easily and actually more usefully be placed on each individual Character/Series page. :Not that it is really relevant, but I have always found it funny/ironic/hypocritical when fanfiction authors take issue with others using their concepts. After all, their very work uses another person's concepts without permission. :Other than these, I don't really have any suggestions. I also don't know what to tell you concerning the issue of Fanon characters. The only thing that I can think of is to go with descriptions: girl in blue, boy in black jacket, etc. But even these aren't really good. :Mknopp (talk) 02:30, November 12, 2013 (UTC) ::Thank you for your time and recommendations. Always good to have fresh eyes and perspective to look things over. I have no doubt there will still be a learning curve and period of growing pains as situations I cannot foresee arise, yet I still have to make the attempt to *try* and anticipate a structure for such diversity in the topic matter. Still, you've given me some things to consider. ::Thoughts in no particular order… Character/Author is strictly optional, and as you say, primarily so an author/artist can discuss their particular head-canon/fanon, although a serious reviewer could do so as well. For example I have a certain homogenized over-arcing fanon in regard to Tara, so discussing that common view on a single page should serve to reduce repetition elsewhere. ::Character/FullName is only for those missing a first or last name, so someone giving Ron Stoppable a middle name would not apply. As for highly popular fanon fullnames like Wade Load (I myself prefer Lode, as in lodestone, which as a magnet has the benefit of a connection to electronics and not just alluding to his girth alone), yes, that becomes a disambig to the various stories, and I suppose in cases where a story gives him an extensive enough backstory, then that's another place where Char/Author would be useful. ::Installments… mainly that is *terminology*. For practical purposes, a *series* started/starts with a Story, then as soon as a new story is placed in the same continuity'verse, the first becomes the Series' "anchor" and all the rest "add-ons". I'm anticipating that the first story provides the most information and the rest are more like, "in this week's episode…" ::If there is anything I may rethink, it is the Author/StoryName format, and dropping back to separating them as both top-level basepages. As for the Nameless, I may have to resort to a Gallery where images are links in the first steps of a Disambig process. ::Oh! Permissions… yeah, there is something to what you say, but this wiki is to be a repository for diverse personalities. Some share freely, some only ask for a credit-trail back to them, some don't want anything used. Personally, I say "ask" mainly because hopefully correspondence will allow me to ensure someone else *understands* my oddball takes on things. However, it is not my place to try and convince someone to not be stingy with their fanon concepts. I'm just trying to preemptively anticipate potential conflicts. ::Thank You. --Love Robin (talk) 14:12, November 12, 2013 (UTC) Suggestions for Categories Things like not only Ships, but basics like "Evil Kim" and "Evil Ron" Oh, I shall point out that despite recognizing stories are already written, Evil Ron ''never once ''called himself, or was referred to by others,. as "Zorpox"… please keep that in mind. Love Robin (talk) 06:53, March 10, 2013 (UTC)